If we fill the sim (likely since we often do and this one got picked up on Boing Boing), overflow access will kindly be provided on the web by DestroyTV.com
-- the hardest working avatar in show business -- where you'll see and
hear streaming video and audio of the salon, and can even chat with
everyone from the comfort of your browser.

For those new to the salon meetings you can subscribe to this blog
for future updates (please let me know if
you're interested in helping on some light, credited design work on the
SLFS blog--we've been between looks for a while), join the "SL Future Salon" group in SL for inworld
announcements, and the Yahoo! group for emails. Last month we began posting SLFS podcasts to metaversesessions.com, so you can check there for audio archives.

For some background and scope of what's fair game at the salon, here
are some links ranging from ARGs to just plain AR that influenced my
prep:

As you can see from the links, I'm drawing this pretty widely, not
minding dropping the G in ARG, like SL drops the G in MOG. I'm really
interested in exploring the possibilities of all imagined stories and
characters that mix with reality as usual (are purported to be true or
real -- or in the case of events in a virtual world, are technically
very true and real with the caveat that they take place in cyberspace);
alternate/reality generated content (like Sasha Cohen interacting with
people that don't know Borat is a character, and recording the
encounters -- which has it's ethical and legal issues);
co-created storylines that take on a life of their own; community and
culture that grows up around ARG stories and challenges and how
widespread and sustainable it can be (I think of the characters in The
Idiots, as a kind of obscure example for anyone who's seen that, who
try to take their idiot behavior home to their families as a test of
how committed they are and find themselves completely shunned); ARGs as
a more efficient platform for celebrity for their participants (so the
best contributors to the stories are more fully recognized for their
talents and further incented to participate); ARG business models and
how they can reward their participants; real work and ARGs
(ARGsourcing, ha -- couple of wild ideas here), and anything that a big
fat, unfolding interactive story that spreads across many kinds of
media would just make more interesting. Which is pretty much
everything, and a lot more things in virtual worlds like Second Life.

As the poet Muriel Rukeyser put it, from the human side: "The
universe is made of stories, not of atoms." I'm looking forward to
hearing from everyone how the future of unchained interactive stories
might meet with the future of work and production of media. Lots to
noodle on, and hopefully some very cool creative ideas for people to
run with. Definitely some theater with your software, or your new
media. Send me any questions for tonght. It's all fair game.

Comments

Hell, if we're dropping the "G" in ARGs, I'll submit that my Babies With Beards microsite is firmly in alternate reality territory. It's gotten millions of hits over the years--quite a few visitors have been confused about whether it's fact or fiction. The narrative of the site is extended through discussions that have taken place on various parenting discussion boards and other web haunts.

Babies with Beards - what about Men with Nipples (feeding babies). Some students from AFTRS (where I work) delivering an AR film inadvertantly? From Google AFTRS Films. Fine lines between AR, spoof and deception ;-) So is Spinal Tap an AR?

Not much on my mind right now. Today was a complete loss. So it goes. I've just been sitting around waiting for something to happen. I've basically been doing nothing , but I guess it doesn't bother me.